The Warwick Electrochemistry and Interfaces group has recently worked with President Kennedy School and Community College, Coventry to provide students with a unique opportunity to gain hands on experience with advanced electrochemical techniques and projects.

Warwick welcomed four exceptional students - William Blundell, Michael Tognetti, Brinder Purewal and Leigh Randle, who are studying AS level Chemistry, accompanied by their science teachers, Emma Turner and Ed Ratcliffe-Law. The students travelled to the University of Warwick for two hours a week for 6 weeks, and worked on defined projects alongside PhD students and postdoctoral fellows using advanced scientific equipment to conduct mini-projects in fundamental electrochemistry, nanoscale electrochemistry, pharmaceutical crystal dissolution and electrochemical analysis of dental enamel processes. Various electrochemical techniques were used, alongside specialist techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM) and Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM).

In the final week, the students presented their projects and fielded questions to a seminar audience of over 30 people, and showed a remarkable understanding of their work and fields of study.

Many thanks to Emma Turner, Ed Ratcliffe-Law, Patrick Unwin, Nick Barker, Barak Aaronson, Maria Adobes Vidal, Pollyana Souza Castro, Rob Lazenby, Sze-yin Tan, Josh Byers and Alexander Parker for making this happen, and to William, Michael, Brinder and Leigh for their hard work and enthusiasm!

WEIG hope to conduct more of these activities in the future to provide opportunities for the wider community to get involved in the physical and analytical sciences and spread our enthusiam for electrochemistry.